[George Fox was the
English founder of the Society of Friends (Quakers). He made a trip
to the American colonies in 1672, and the following entry from his
journal describes his travels through the middle
colonies.]

... The 17th of 6th month
[August] we had a very large meeting at Flushing with many hundreds
of the people of the world, some came about thirty miles. And a
justice of the peace was there and his family, and many considerable
persons were there. A glorious and heavenly meeting it was, praised
be the Lord God, and the people much satisfied. . . .

And when the wind served we came
to the sloop, and many Friends came with us, where we took water for
the new country, Jersey, down the great bay twenty-one miles and we
were much toiled to get in our horses; and the 27th day of the 6th
month, we landed in the morning by break of the day, in the new
country at Middletown Harbour. As we passed down the bay we passed by
Coney Island, and by Naton Island, and by Staten Island, and we came
to Richard Hartshorne's. And on the 28th day we passed about thirty
miles in the new country through the woods, very bad bogs, one worse
than all, where we and our horses were fain to slither down a steep
place, and then let them lie and pant, and breathe themselves, and
they call this place Purgatory. And so we came to Shrewsbury in East
Jersey, and on the first day of the week, the lst day of the 7th
month [September], we had a very large and a precious meeting; and
the blessed presence of the Lord was with us. And in that place a
Friend is made a justice. Friends and other people came far to this
meeting. And on the 2nd day of the 7th month, we had a men's and
women's meeting, out of most parts of the new country Jersey, which
will be of great service in keeping the gospel order and government
of Christ Jesus (the increase of which hath no end) and for them to
see that all do live in the pure religion and to walk as becometh the
Gospel; and there is a Monthly and a General Meeting set up, and they
are building a meeting-place in the midst of them. . . . And there a
Friend, John Jay of Barbados, that was with me went to try a horse,
and got on his back. And the horse ran and cast him on his head and
broke his neck as they called it, and the people took him up dead,
and carried him a good way, and laid him on a tree. And I came to him
and felt on him, and saw that he was dead, and as I was pitying his
family and him, for he was one that was to pass with me through the
woods to Maryland that land journey, I took him by the hair of his
head, and his head turned like a cloth it was so loose. I threw away
my stick and gloves, and took his head in both my hands, and set my
knees against the tree and wrested his head and I did perceive it was
not broken out that way. And I put my hand under his chin, and behind
his head, and wrested his head two or three times with all my
strength, and brought it in, and I did perceive his neck began to be
stiff, and then he began to rattle, and after to breathe, and the
people were amazed, and I bid them have a good heart and be of good
faith, and carry him into the house, and then they set him by the
fire, and I bid them get him some warm thing to drink and get him to
bed. So after he had been in the house awhile, he began to speak, and
did not know where he had been. So we bound up his neck warm with a
napkin, and the next day we passed on and he with us, pretty well,
about sixteen miles to a meeting at Middletown, and many hundreds of
miles afterwards, through the woods and bogs. And we swam our horses
over a river, and went over on a tree ourselves, And at the meeting
was most of the town. And Friends were and are very well, blessed be
the Lord, and a glorious meeting we had and the Truth was over all,
blessed be the great Lord God for ever. And after the meeting we
passed to Middletown harbour about five miles, on the 9th day of the
7th month, to take our long journey through the woods towards
Maryland. So we hired Indians, for it was upon me to pass through the
woods on the other side Delaware Bay, to head the creeks and rivers
if it were possible. So the 9th of the 7th month, we set forward, and
passed through many Indian towns, and rivers, and bogs, and at night
made us a fire, and lay by it. When we had passed about forty miles
among the Indians, we declared the day of the Lord to them, and the
next day we passed fifty miles and found an old house, which the
Indians had forced the people to desert, and got us some fire, at the
head of Delaware Bay. And the next day we swam our horses over a
river about a mile, at twice, first to an island called Upper
Tineconk and then to the mainland, and hired Indians to help us over
in their canoes, and our horses.

The 12th day of the 7th month,
this day we passed about thirty miles and came at night to a Swede's
house, and got a little straw, and lay there all night. And there we
hired another guide; and next day we traveled about forty miles
through the woods and rivers, and made us a fire at night and lay in
the woods. . . . and from thence we came to Christian River and swam
over our horses, and it was bad and miry, some dam, sixteen miles,
and being very weary in the streets and enquiring to buy some corn
for our horses, the governor came in to the street and invited me to
his house and to lodge there, and said that he had a bed for me and I
was welcome. I went to his house on the Seventh-day of the week, and
he proffered his house for a meeting, and so I had a meeting at his
house the Firstday [Sunday], a precious one, blessed be the Lord, and
pretty large. The heads of the town were there and most of the town,
the governor and his wife, and the sheriff, and the scout, who is a
man of great esteem amongst them. Many men and women were tender and
confessed to the Truth and received it, blessed be the Lord for ever,
Amen. Here had never been a meeting before, not within a great way of
it till now, by any of our Friends.

The Indians at Delaware lay in
wait to cut off some of our company as they passed that way, but
their design was discovered, one being hanged at Delaware two or
three days before we came thither. The Lord gave us power over all,
blessed me his name for ever. . . .

On the 18th day we passed through
many tedious bogs, and traveled hard about fifty miles, and came well
through the woods to Maryland, to Robert Harwood's at Miles River,
very weary. . . . And a judge's wife was there who was never at our
meeting before, and many others there who were well satisfied, and
the power of the Lord was over all, blessed be his name for ever. And
she said after the meeting she had rather hear this man once than the
priests a thousand times, and she is convinced. . . .

And on the 27th day we passed by
water twenty miles to a meeting, very large, some hundreds of the
world, and an establishing meeting it was, and there were four
justices of the peace and an Indian emperor, and one of his great
men, and another great man of another nation of Indians, and they
stayed all the meeting. And I had a good speech with them the night
before; and I spoke by an interpreter, and they received the Truth,
and were very loving; and the emperor said he did believe that I was
a very honest man.

Blessed be the Lord, his Truth
doth spread

And after the meeting was done,
the wife of a judge of that side of the country, one of the Assembly,
being at the meeting that day sent to speak with me and desired me to
go with her, home to her house, for her husband was sick and not like
to live; and it was three miles. And after the meeting I was hot, but
I got a horse and went with her; and he was finely raised up and
after came to our meetings. . . .

On the 30th we passed five miles
by water and then about fourteen miles by land through the woods to
John Edmondson's at Tred Avon Creek. And on the 3rd day of the 8th
month [October], we came to the General Meeting of all Maryland
Friends; and it held from the Sixth-day to the Third-day of the next
week, which was five days, that is three days were the General
Meetings for public worship, and two days the men's and women's
meetings. And many of the world were at the public meetings, some
Papists, clerks of their courts, and there were eight justices of the
peace, and one of the judges and his wife, and another judge's wife,
and many considerable persons of quality. And they judged that there
was a thousand people; and one of the justices said, that he never
saw so many people together in the country, though it was rainy
weather. And Friends and people were generally satisfied and
convinced, and the blessed power of the Lord was over all, and a
great convincement there is, and a great inquiring after the Truth
among all sorts of people, and the Truth is of a good report and
Friends are much established, and the world convinced. They said they
had never heard the Scriptures so clearly opened before, for said
they, 'He hath them at his fingers' ends, and as a man should read
them in a book and hold it open before him.' And the people were
satisfied beyond words, and a glorious powerful meeting there was,
blessed be the Lord for ever. And when the General Meeting was done,
we had some of all the choice of the men and women to meet together
for I had something to inform them concerning the glory of God, and
the order of the Gospel and the government of Christ Jesus and
concerning the great meeting. . . .

At Flushing as soon as the
meeting was done, there stood up a priest's son and laid down three
things that he would dispute, the first was the ordination of
ministers, the second women's speaking, and the third that we held a
new way of worship. And I spoke to him and demanded what he had
against what I had spoken and he could say nothing. Then I said it
was like Christ's way of worship which he set up above 1,600 years
ago, and was a new way of worship to him and his priests, it being in
the spirit and in the truth. And as for women's speaking, such as the
apostles did own I owned, and such as they did deny I did
deny....